Conventionally, as a tool for easily slicing a slicing subject such as any of various vegetables and fruits into sliced pieces with any thickness, a slicer has been used which swings the slicing subject forward and backward in a slicing direction to slice the slicing subject with a slicing blade.
A conventional slicer in related art includes a frame having paired left and right support arms, a slicing blade fixed at both ends to the support arms, a fixed support plate placed at the front of the slicing blade and bridging between paired left and right frame parts, and a movable support plate placed at the back of the slicing blade. By moving the movable support plate in a vertical direction, the slicing width (thickness) of the slicing subject can be adjusted.
The movable support plate of the slicer as described above is supported by a sliding support body placed below the movable support plate and, by moving the sliding support body forward and backward to change a support position, the movable support plate can ascend or descend in a vertical direction (for example, refer to Japanese National Publication No. 2010-524574, corresponding to International Patent Application Publication WO 2008/130812 and United States Patent Application Publication 2008/0257128).
However, in the slicer as described above, with the slicing subject swung forward and backward as being pressed onto the movable support plate, the slicer tends to warp when the slicing subject is sliced. Therefore, a space (actual slicing width) between the slicing blade and the movable support plate is widened more than a space (initially-set slicing width) between the slicing blade and the movable support plate set in advance, thereby possibly causing the slicing subject to be sliced thicker than an intended thickness.
Moreover, passages where both ends of the sliding support body are accommodated are small. In these passages, fine chips of the slicing subject may be caught or dirty water containing mud attached onto the surface of the slicing subject and so forth may remain, thereby possibly impairing sanitary conditions as the slicer is used over a long period of time.
Thus arises a technical problem to be solved in order to provide a slicer which slices a slicing subject with a uniform thickness and can be used in a sanitized manner, and an object of the present invention is to solve this problem.